Updates

I was talking to my Birrd friend a few weeks ago (ack! I can't believe it was already a few WEEKS ago!!) She keeps a faithful blog about her life, and I love reading it and seeing how her family is doing. I told her that I feel dumb posting things on my blog, then look back and think, "I should have blogged about that!" or other things like that. She said, "don't feel dumb, just post it!!"

So as the days go on, I really don't feel like much happens in our little piece of the world, but then I think, "wow, we had a really busy month!" So I had better let people know what we are up to!

School is going really well for our bunch. E is in preschool. She is blessed to be able to be taught preschool by her grandma. Grandma has been teaching preschool for over 30 years. I was her very first preschool class. Yes, its been a long time of teaching!! She loves going to Grandma's school. She doesn't have a very big class so it is a lot of one-on-one attention that she gets. She has learned her colors and shapes and is starting numbers soon. They don't start letters until after Christmas but she is very interested in writing her name, and she does a pretty darn good job of it, too!

O and K are both in elementary, 2nd and 4th grades respectfully. They love school and love their teachers. I am the mean mom that makes my kids walk the whole 1/2 mile to the school. But it helps get rid of energy before and after school which makes life a lot easier!! I can't say enough good things about their school. They have a great reading program with the AR testing (which is a reading comprehension test the kids take and accumulate points based on the level of the book). The school has reading levels that they try to make it to from Page (25 points) to Reading Counts Royalty (1000 points). Those kids who get 250 points by the end of the year get to go to a party, so it's pretty good motivation. Both O and K are trying to get to Reading Counts Royalty, which is a pretty hard thing to do. Especially for O because no 2nd graders have ever done it before. She is excited and it gets her reading!

S is in middle school and thriving. She rides the bus in the mornings and has to get up earlier than she would like but she has transitioned well to this. Their first term ended and she brought home her report card with straight A's and perfect citizenship scores. I'm pretty proud of her!!

A is in junior high school. She had to change schools this year to, but her bus leaves 1/2 hour later than S's. She is still playing the trombone in band and they started a jazz band during their study hall hour that she gets to play in with the ninth graders. She really enjoys this!!

B and I stay home (hahahaha, staying home, grocery shopping, canning, it doesn't seem like I'm home too much!!) and try to get things done. We have a good time together. She is a really good helper and likes to be involved in whatever she can be! All in all, we're pretty happy!!

Our biggest change has been slowly happening. My Slack sister's husband has been the band instrument repair guy for the little valley we live in. He was offered a job about 150 miles away to manage a repair shop for a pretty big company. He took the job reluctantly, then asked my hubby if he would ever be interested in learning the trade so the valley wouldn't be left without an instrument repair guy. The hubby jumped at the chance to get out of his dead-end job and has been apprenticing with the brother-in-law since  July. He has now cut down to part-time at Wal-Mart so he can keep our insurance benefits, mainly, so he can work 20 hours a week repairing instruments. It has been a really good change for our family. I have been able to go in a few times and help him out and learn the bookkeeping part of the business. Our plan is to buy the business from them so the hubby can go to full-time repairs by summer.

We are excited for the changes that are coming!!